


Like Calls to Like

by KittyWillCutYou



Series: A Lullaby for Your Demons [1]
Category: Naruto, Shinobi (Video Games)
Genre: "I'll be taking this", "Yoink!!", Akujiki is here to fuck shit up, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Child Abuse, Crossover, Demonic Possession, Dimension Travel, Families of Choice, Fuck Canon, Gen, Hotsuma doesn't know what he's getting into, Hotsuma has run out of fucks to give, I don't care how badly this would fuck canon, I'm still hella mad about how little shinobi fanfic exists in general, Naruto is a sunshine child, Possessed Items, Self-Indulgent, also Hotsuma is a lonely lonely boy, also he hella lonely, because i feel like it, because of course, cause boy is lonely, cursed items, did I mention he was lonely?, doing something about it, implied - Freeform, mostly he's just a mischievous little shit and hella possessive, no seriously, purely self-indulgent bullshit, purposeful accidental child acquisition, screw ethics they're ninja, so this is me, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 01:29:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15183740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyWillCutYou/pseuds/KittyWillCutYou
Summary: For days things continued like this. He slipped about the village like a specter and saw the boy occasionally wandering through the streets. He watched the boy leave the orphanage only to be berated by villagers and tossed from restaurants, rebuffed from shop after shop."Are you Lonely?" He asked."Maybe," The boy replied. "Are you?"





	1. Chapter 1

 

Akujiki had awakened, but it wouldn’t be until years later that Hotsuma finally understood what that truly meant, for him especially.

 

The sorcerer Hiruko slew his clan and raised them as his undead slaves. With his dark magic, he tore a rift in the veil and brought demons flooding into the world of man. The city of Tokyo crumbled, the world trembled and though Hotsuma slew the sorcerer and avenged his clan, it left a wound. Their blood and their souls filled the demon blade Akujiki and awoke it, screaming for mayhem and murder, howling for yin and souls.

 

The great blade had lain dormant for so many generations, barely stirring at any point save for the incident when Hotsuma, Moritsune and Ageha had found it as children. It nearly killed them and Ageha would have been first had Moritsune not intervened. It would have eaten their souls.

 

Yet it took the blood of slain demons to truly stoke the flames of its hunger and then it was a battle of wills as Hotsuma cut through his enemies, his felled friends and demons alike, a race against time, struggling to quench Akujiki’s unceasing thirst for blood and death.

 

He kept it sated for as long as possible, but he’d always known that one day it would no longer be enough.

 

Years went by and Hotsuma remained a wanderer, reduced to little more than a hired blade. He had no clan and no heir and something deep inside him was changing him, warping him. His mind was still his own, but his body. He could feel it. Akujiki had tainted him. His senses were sharper and power washed through him, spiking at the sight of enemies slain, their souls devoured.

 

What a terrible price; his humanity for power he did not covet.

 

And things had finally come to a head. Hotsuma could no longer delude himself in thinking that he might one day escape this personal form of hell, this all encompassing loneliness. The sword whispered to him. The time had come and Hotsuma abandoned all hope of escape.

 

The forest was deep and dark and just the place to allow the shadows to consume him for good. Pain wracked his body, sending him into near convulsions that left him reeling. The demon blade would take him at last, he was sure of it. There was laughter ringing in his ears, deep and bellowing and Hotsuma braced himself for the end, nearly begged for it.

 

His blood was on fire, searing through his veins but instead of descending into nothingness or perhaps eternal damnation, the pain spiked and then intensified. Did it intend for him to suffer for as long as possible? He wouldn't have been surprised if that was its will. The voice once cursed him, very early on when he first began to master the blade. Now all Hotsuma knew was pain.

 

The feel of it was so much different from before and so much worse, like a great pressure weighing down on him, trying to suffocate him. He could barely breathe, gasping uselessly in an attempt to cry out in agony as his body was crushed and burned from the inside out.

 

 _Perfect_ , the voice hissed, sounding as if it were barely inches away from his ear and Hotsuma flinched, the glow of Akujiki’s yin intensifying until it was nearly blinding. _A part of us_ , it said and his hand burned where he still held the hilt of the katana, but he couldn’t make himself let go.

 

_One of us._

 

He understood then with dawning horror and resignation that the blade would not kill him. No, death would have been too kind. The voice laughed uproariously in triumph and then faded from his mind like smoke. The world flashed red, lightning arcing across his body and Hotsuma sank into a void.

 

There was nothing left for him in his world, but perhaps somewhere else…

 

Hotsuma felt as if his body were being compressed and then stretched well beyond its limits. It was a horrifying feeling and he was sure that if not for his training and his self-control,  he would have lost his mind and sense of self somewhere along the way. He centered himself and came out the other side, gasping and near blind, but sane.

 

 _Demons are far more resilient_ , chuckled Akujiki in his mind and Hotsuma snarled as he reopened his eyes. When had he closed them? He was not sure, but he did know that this was not the same forest he’d fled into to die. The implications made his head rush. The greenery was fuller, lusher and there was a power in the air, on the tip of his tongue.

 

It was intoxicating.

 

“Where have you taken us?” Hotsuma reached up to uncover his mouth from the tattered red scarf he still wore to hide the lower half of his face after all this time. He breathed in deeply, his lungs aching and his breath misting faintly in the air with heat. The sun was on its way down. “What have you done?” Akujiki, still clenched in his left hand, did not deign to answer him.

 

Curse the blade to hell and back, but he knew there wasn't anything he could do. He couldn't stay where he’d landed out in the open like he was, that was for sure.  He was a shinobi, he needed to conceal himself and gather his strength. Who knew what might be hiding in the unknown, beneath the shadows and greenery of a forest so alive it almost whispered to him.

 

Hotsuma took only a few seconds to take in his surrounds, the bent and scarred limbs of trees and foliage and the scorched earth spiraling out from beneath his feet, nearly twenty feet around. Much of the surrounding plant life at the outer edge of the circle had also withered and that did not sit well with him, unease curling low in his belly.

 

He sheathed his sword and disappeared between one breath and the next, barely a flicker of leaves and displaced air. Hotsuma grimaced and mentally clicked his tongue at his own sloppiness. Ageha would have teased him for it.

 

Pushing down the resurge of guilt and loss, Hotsuma resolved to get as far away from the place he’d landed as possible, pushing his already quite fatigued body even more. It should have been difficult to move this fast, this fluently, as exhausted as he was, but it was like breathing. It did not tax him. It was child’s play. Something was wrong. He ran until he didn't think about any of it anymore and then he could sense people, tiny pinpricks of energy and other larger flares.

 

It was different from what he was used to, much more pure. There were still ninja left in the land from whence he came, but they were sparse, dwindling, and none had ever felt quite like this, save for a few of the very elite. Hotsuma resolved to avoid any and all until he knew more, though he wondered if perhaps they might be able to sense him as well.

 

He was sure that eventually someone would come to investigate the disturbance he’d made, even if it happened dead in the center of the forest, far away from prying eyes. He wasn't sure why he knew this, but he was more than certain.

 

And there was also something darker lurking, just on the edge of his senses. _Demons_ , he thought and did not question why he knew this with every fiber of his being. He should know after all, having spent Gods knew how long hunting them to the ends of the Earth and back.

 

 _I'm not much different from them myself now, am I?_ The thought came unbidden, bitter yet resigned as Hotsuma sequestered himself in the thick branches of a tall oak. He examined his hand, encased in supple leather and dark armor. His gear had undergone some changes over the years like the sharpened talons at the ends of his armored gloves, but other things remained much the same.

 

He flexed his fingers and closed his hand into a tight fist. He needed information. A map, supplies, food...Didn't he? Did he even still need to eat? A hissing chuckle echoed in his mind and Hotsuma cradled his head in hand, gritting his teeth against the sudden onslaught of bloodlust.

 

 _Focus, Hotsuma,_ he berated himself _, you know what you need to do, you can worry about the rest as you go along._

 

He could handle this, he reasoned. Changed in ways he could barely comprehend, let alone examine in depth at the moment and trapped in another world full of potentially stranger creatures, Hotsuma gathered his will and stood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is self indulgent universe hopping bullshit...also this may or may not be connected to my other fic 'The Many Shades of Death'. Possibly. Maybe. Who knows at this point. I sure don't.
> 
> Update: Yes it is. Loosely. I don't know, shit's probably gonna get weird in another entry.


	2. Chapter 2

 

Even with his considerable skill and prowess, Hotsuma knew that gathering the information he needed would take time and patience.

 

This new world was strange in many ways, but also familiar in others. It was less developed in numerous areas, but others seemed to be more in line with the world he’d been forced to leave behind. And the demons...it didn’t take him long to hunt down a pack and rip them to pieces, blood slipping down his blade and quenching a raging hunger in both himself and Akujiki.

 

His body was stronger now, faster in ways that disturbed him and Akujiki hissed in his mind, stoking his bloodlust like a flame. A part of him wanted to avoid people, everyone and everything, but he was also curious (and alone, everyone was _gone, gone, gone-_ ). Hotsuma drew his knees in close, sequestered away in the thick branches of one of the monstrous trees that seemed to be native to this particular forest.

 

Perhaps he could find a way to return home, but did he even want to? Would Akujiki even allow him? Was the power to travel between dimensions his as well as the sword’s now that they were connected so? Hotsuma hoped so. But he was here now and, for the time being, unable to leave of his own volition.

 

And he was curious.

 

Specifically about the ninja of this world. He’d been through the towns along the roads, ghosting through inns and the like. It was terribly easy to disguise himself as a civilian, to ask a question here and there and lull others into a false sense of security.

 

Using energy and chakra, the yin and yang of the soul to perform feats otherwise impossible was a standard practice for shinobi in general to various degrees, but it was so palpable here. The shinobi villages were like beacons and they called to him.

 

The closest nearby was Konoha.

 

Akujiki pulsed faintly in its sheath, strapped to his back and Hotsuma shifted, pulling the odd metal plated headband he’d snatched off the corpse of a bandit he’d slane. It was worn and bore a scratch straight through the symbol in the middle. They looked like clouds maybe...or rocks.  He wasn't quite sure.

 

A little while after that incident, a squad of ninja traversing the trees honed in on his position and he was forced to conceal himself once more. But it wasn't the way he was expecting. Akujiki was a constant presence in the back of his head and it nudged him insistently. _Shift,_ it demanded, clearly giddy and amused. _Change._ Hotsuma didn't even begin to question it when his body felt too tight. It was agonizing but it only lasted a minute or two and then his perspective was significantly changed.

 

He moved to do-...something, anything really, but ended up nearly overbalancing on his tiny little limbs. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words he...squawked. _Don't panic,_ he chided himself, _hide._ He had wings now, sleek and black. He trilled faintly, a low raspy warbling noise that made the feathers on his chest shift. Some kind of black bird, more than likely a domestic crow if a bit...larger.

 

The shinobi closed in and Hotsuma couldn't be bothered to figure out more. Hiding amongst the leaves, he noted the glint of their headbands, the metal just as worn but the symbols unmarked. They'd checked the bodies and scouted the area, before sealing the bodies up into scrolls and flickering out of existence. It was all so familiar but also very different.

 

They hadn't noticed him at all, ghosting right over his hiding places as he lounged in the branches, Akujiki tittering in his head. He’d made himself scarce not long after they left, not wanting to press his luck too much just yet, but still.

 

He could follow them, the trail they’d left. Because they were good and they left no trace, but he could still...tell, somehow. The impression, _their scent._ The trees whispered and Akujiki chittered, a dark voice in the back of his head saying follow them, follow them, the shadows cling and the demons like the blood and death that wafts from them, _follow them_.

 

Hotsuma eventually shifted back into his human form. He rose up on his perch and crouched, armored claws digging into the bark, shredding it like paper. _Follow them,_ said Akujiki and the shadows bent around him, edged in the barest hint of red as they swallowed him up.

 

________________

 

Konohagakure was much bigger than he was expecting of a hidden village. It was the size of a small city, sprawling and intermingling with the same types of monstrous trees he’d seen traversing the Land of Fire. It looked less unnatural than he would have expected. It spoke well of its title 'The village hidden in the leaves’.

 

It was beautiful and prosperous, but Hotsuma was not fooled. Akujiki whispered about the shadows deep below, beneath colorful rooftops, gilded by the sun. It's not really like he expected anything less after all, ninja dealt in the underbelly of the world, but there was something...more.

 

He wasn't quite sure if his curiosity for this world or his severely lessened capacity for bullshit would win out in the end, but for now he planned to just play it by ear.

 

“Get out of here, you demon!”

 

Hotsuma paused in the shadow of an building, cloaked from prying eyes from the cities patrols and listened. He rolled the peach he’d stolen from a vendor idly in his palm before making up his mind to investigate.

 

He found himself a few rooftops away, transformed into a nondescript black crow, watching someone bodily toss what looked like a four year old child into the street. The old man, a civilian obviously and weilding a broom wasn't far behind and people watched openly and without comment as he swiped at the boy.

 

Hotsuma's head tilted, eyes unblinking and waiting for someone to do or say _something_ but it never happened. The onlookers simply whispered and occasionally even smirked. They were amused by the boys plight even better after being struck across the face. Any other children within the crowd were ushered along as quickly as possible or hidden behind skirts.

 

How strange.

 

Did no one care for the boy at all? Eventually the boy was left to pick himself up, obviously upset and cheeks smeared with tears and dirty. He spat childish words of insult at the closed doors of the shop and then bolted. _Follow_ , Akujiki whispered and his instincts agreed.

 

A part of him hoped that the boy had some kind of caretaker but the threadbare quality of his clothes said otherwise. Judging by the lack of care he would have to assume orphan, but the level of disdain exhibited by nearly all the child passed by did not make sense. He was just a child.

 

It was such genuine malice at that, he could feel it and Akujiki chittered in his mind, chuckling like it was the greatest joke in history.

 

They followed him all the way back to what could only be an orphanage where he was greeted by a stern faced old woman. She berated him and then ungently tugged him inside the building, the door slamming shut behind them.

 

Hotsuma watched...and waited...and listened.

 

Perhaps that was the end of it but, still something held him there. He waited and waited, but nothing happened. Finally, he decided it  was time to go, that there were still things to explore within the village and he needed to try his hand at impersonating civilians. But every night he would return to the same spot and watch.

 

For days things continued like this. He slipped about the village like a specter and saw the boy occasionally wandering through the streets. He watched the boy leave the orphanage only to be berated by villagers and tossed from restaurants, rebuffed from shop after shop.

 

He watched the measly offerings of payment for small items be knocked from too small hands or completely ignored. For What? The boy obviously wasn't a thief. Hotsuma continued to shadow the village, but he always returned to watch the loud desperate little boy go about the village and every time it was always the same thing. Rebuked and avoided.

 

It made no sense.

 

Hotsuma noticed the watchers the boy had, but they often did not interfere as long as there was no actual physical violence enacted against the boy, but a lot of good that was.

 

For two days Hotsuma always made sure to take a moment to follow the boy and watch. And then on the third day, he returned to the orphanage and perched on the other building across from it. The sun went down and there were noises and then yelling and the door of the building swung open. He could hear the matron's voice, shrill and enraged and the voice of the same little blonde boy, just as high.

 

There was a shriek and then the boy came rolling forcefully out of the door. A small ratty duffel followed not far behind, landing with a thump in the dirt just shy of his little blonde head and Hotsuma winced in sympathy.

 

None of this made any sense.

 

He was obviously missing something important. Sniffling, the boy picked himself up off the ground, grabbed his duffle and fled the scene. Hotsuma, in the form of a crow once again, flapped his wings and followed.

 

It was quite late, but the boy seemed undeterred or perhaps too upset to really care as he took to alleyways with little caution. He fled past a bar, pausing only for a moment to eye the lights and take in the smells of hot food before some of the patrons noticed he was there and sneered.

 

When a few started to rise from their seats the child seemed to realize it was best to keep running and moved along. Hotsuma watched some of the patrons, the slightly more drunken and rowdy ones, get up to follow and, no, that wouldn't do.

 

He flew ahead of them and curved into an alley, following the boy’s scent. He caught hold of the boy’s shirt collar and cawed. “H-Hey, you stupid bird, what are you-! Let go!” Hotsuma dodged small flailing arms and landed on the lid of a trash can, cawing. The boy seemed ready to start yelling but paused at the sound of footsteps. He froze, paling considerably, but Hotsuma rose up, heaving and fiddling with the trash can lid with his beak.

 

The boy looked confused but Hotsuma was not deterred. He puffed up his feathers and then flipped under the lid, hoping the boy would understand. Thankfully he did and not a moment later, the lid opened and a tiny body scurried in. It smelled awful but it was preferable to the sound of drunken grating voices and shuffling footsteps.

 

“Where are you, you little monster?” Said a low slurring voice, we know you're here.” The boy flinched but Hotsuma paid them no mind. He clamped his beak around a small piece of the boy's ratty shirt and with a wrench the world swirled in red and a hint of black.

 

The shadows spat them out a few alleys away, the child sputtering as he rolled on the grimey alley floor, slightly green from vertigo. “W-what-?” Shaking and confused, the little boy pushed himself up from his sprawl and looked warily at the crow perched nearby. “H-how...hey, Crow-san, are you a ninja or sum’thin?”

 

Huh...cute.

 

It was about then that the boy also noticed the small round peach sitting by the Crow's feet, nearly a third it's size. Hotsuma rolled it towards the child with his beak and watched him startle in surprise. “That’s…for me?” And oh by the Gods, how could anyone look at those big blue eyes and think to raise a hand at this child. He looked like he might start crying right there just at the offering.

 

Hotsuma nodded his head in an affirmative. He took note of too skinny limbs and slightly too sallow cheeks and resolved that the boy would be _fed_ goddammit. As much as he could stand to eat as soon as Hotsuma could provide it and he would...somehow...even if this didn’t go as he planned. “Thanks, Crow-san!” Small hands picked up the fruit and after wiping it off a little on his shirt, bit into it with a hum.

 

Lonely.

 

All alone.

 

Hotsuma grimaced though he couldn't quite emote properly as he was currently a crow. “Hey, my name's Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!” said the boy, his mouth full of peach guts. “Do you have have a name? Can you speak? ‘Cause I seen animals that can speak, lot’s o’em are dogs and I think Jii-jii said they were called nik-...nin-sum’thin”

 

“Ninken.” Hotsuma supplied and the boy nodded, blonde head bobbing. He was obviously about to continue his stream of speech, but froze suddenly before a giant grin split his face. “You can talk!” The child yelled in excitement only to flinch when Hotsuma shushed him unexpectedly. “Yes, I can speak...though you are much too loud….How old are you?”

 

Naruto seemed to shrink into himself  a bit at this statement and Hotsuma almost regretted saying it, but it was necessary. “Four,” replied the boy, barely above a whisper and Hotsuma felt that bit worse.

 

They were hidden for now with the help of his own power and Akujiki but it would not last. He couldn't completely hide the boy’s chakra because that would alert people that something was wrong, but his watchers weren't in the area for the moment.

 

Hotsuma couldn't quite believe he was about to do this, it was essentially kidnapping but…

 

He thought of the civilians and the orphanage, the indifference, the malice. _He’s like us,_ Akujiki whispered and he agreed but Akujiki quivered inside him, tugging at his very soul. _No,_ it stressed, _look harder._

 

And oh, there, curled deep inside and just as much a part of him as his own life force. Hotsuma thought he might be beginning to understand now.

 

A demon or something like it. Something great and powerful sleeping deep inside the child.

 

“Naruto, are you lonely?” The child had been apparently begun to babble again when Hotsuma had gone silent in thought and froze at being addressed again so unexpectedly.

 

“I-...well, I-...No. Yes...kinda...maybe….” The child spluttered, seemingly at a loss for words. Finally Naruto seems to regain his barings and he stared at the crow. “Are you?”

 

Hotsuma hadn't been expecting that at all, but he still answered honestly. “Yes.” The word only choked him a little.

 

“Where’s all yer’ friends?” Naruto prodded, surprisingly gentle, “Yer family?” Hotsuma shook his head. They were all gone now. Gone and never coming back. Naruto’s lip wobbled and he looked around the alley from the crow to the walls to the peach in his hands.

 

“... Yer' not a _crow_ crow, are you Crow-san?”

 

Hotsuma shook his head and then with an inhale let the shadows bend around him until he was himself again, a shinobi in black and red armor. The tattered ends of his red scarf fell over his shoulder and pooled near his hand where it rested on the ground as he crouched, balancing on the balls of his feet.

 

He waited for screaming or perhaps the sound of small retreating feet, but there was nothing. After a time he raised his head to look and watched the boy flinched back, no doubt at the sight of the ominous two pairs of eyes glowing blue on the plate of his mask.

 

He knew how intimidating it could be, so he took a chance and reached up to remove it. After a bit of deliberation, he tugged his scarf down from his mouth as well. Naruto relaxed somewhat and then seemed to puff up a little moving closer to peer up at Hotsuma's face.

 

The boy really was far too tiny.

 

“Naruto, would you like to come with me?” The boy startled again at the sound of his name and then he gaped before frowning in obvious suspicion. “I'm not supposed to go with strangers.” Naruto replied, arms crossed in front of his chest and it made Hotsuma chuckle faintly just a bit amused because that was very good advice. At least the boy had that much.

 

The sound of it must have startled the boy but he looked faintly pleased, a light dusting of pink blooming across his cheeks. “Why d’you want me anyway? Nobody ever wants m-” The words dried up in his throat and he slumped where her stood like the air had all gone out of him and that was exactly why Hotsuma wanted to take him away from this place.

 

“Because we are the same.” Hotsuma said, “And because we are alone.”

 

Naruto fidgeted in place, clearly upset and unable to express exactly how he felt, the peach he was eaten still in his right hand and only half eaten. “But nobody ever wants me. Even Jii-jii goes back to his place of the tower an-...nobody ever wants _me_ ….not really. Not forever.”

 

As far as Hotsuma was concerned this 'Jii-jii’ and everyone else in this village could go to right to hell.  “Well, I do.” Hotsuma stated with finality and Akujiki laughed in his head, but he didn't let how much it unsettled (and embarrassed) him show on his face. He prefered it when Akujiki was little more than a persistent sentient force and not this...thing...with personality. It was too distracting

 

The boy looked gutted, but Hotsuma forged on, deciding that the boy would simply have to get used to being wanted. “You are free to come with me if you wish.”

 

This seemed too good to be true and Naruto had been told about stranger danger before but something...was different. There was something in the Ninja’s eyes and a feeling in his gut. He trusted it. “You deserve better.” Hotsuma said and Naruto knew that the man wasn't lying to him. That he meant it.

 

Perhaps in another world, if he had waited, he would eventually have been found by the ANBU guard. Perhaps an old leader would have consoled the boy with a bowl of hot broth and noodles and comforted the child. Maybe slowly and overtime the boy would find precious people in this village who would come to care for him, but the past few days had been hard. The tears had left his face tacky and raw and though he healed quickly, Naruto could still remember the quick ache of small bumps and bruises and cuts.

 

His Jii-jii had not been there and still hadn’t come and neither had his favorite animal mask, the one with the dog mask who gave him a pat on the head every once in a while. The one that  left things for him when he wasn’t looking, but always pretended like he didn't know what Naruto was thanking him about.

 

Today it wasn’t enough.

 

Naruto's eyes welled up but he fought it down and told himself that he would not cry. “What's yer' name, Mister?” He asked instead, embarrassed at his wobbly voice, the words feeling thick and difficult to get past his suddenly numb lips.

 

“Hotsuma.”

 

Naruto nodded and looked the man in the eyes, fiddling with the half-eaten peach. After a moment, he reached out in the universal sign for 'pick me up’ and Hotsuma felt his heart break and rearrange all over again. At this point, he felt like he might slaughter the world for this child and he was not prone to irrational bouts of anger. Something told him it would not make the boy happy either so, perhaps he’d settle for bringing him the moon instead or something like that.

 

It was just as well anyway. The boy's watchers seem to finally be inclined to do their jobs now and were moving in on their position. He could feel them. Hotsuma scooped the boy up without a word and rose to his full height.

 

Naruto gasped at the hold, perched on Hotsuma’s hip and one of his hands clutching the fabric of the ninja’s trailing red scarf. “You look really cool.” The boy beamed and yes, Hotsuma was fairly certain that this whole incident would come back to bite him in the ass somehow eventually, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to care.

 

They were both alone, but they could be alone together.

 

“Hold on tight.” Hotsuma whispered and with his will alone, the shadows bent and Naruto gasped in childish wonder. Akujiki laughed in his head, howling for blood and the souls of their enemies and then they were simply both gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, this is purely self-indulgent and I have no regrets....few regrets. whatever.


End file.
